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Head of Clark County Ambulance District faces sodomy, incest charges after arrest

Richard M. Koenig (Submitted Photo)

Posted: Oct. 10, 2013 1:46 pm Updated: Oct. 31, 2013 2:02 pm

By DON O'BRIEN Herald-Whig Staff Writer

KAHOKA, Mo. -- The director of the Clark County Ambulance District faces sex charges after an arrest in crimes involving a child.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said Richard M. Koenig, 35, of Kahoka, was arrested at 12:35 p.m. Wednesday in Kahoka. Police said Koenig was arrested on a Clark County warrant and faces charges of first-degree statutory sodomy, endangering the welfare of a child and incest.

Sgt. Brent Bernhardt of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said the arrest follows a joint investigation by the Missouri State Highway Patrol's Division of Drug and Crime Control and the Missouri Division of Family Services.

If convicted, Koenig could spend up to 15 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections and could be subject to lifetime supervision after the completion of any prison sentence.

According to a probable cause statement filed by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Koenig is accused of being involved in incidents with a child at his residence on June 9. The child told a family member that Koenig had "licked" the child in the child's private area and also had urinated on the child. The child, in a forensic interview with law enforcement officials on June 12, disclosed the same information to them, police said.

According to The Media, a weekly newspaper in Kahoka that serves Clark County, Koenig has been with the ambulance district since April. He replaced Cinda James as director after she retired.

Koenig has little previous history with law enforcement officials in Missouri outside of traffic tickets. He twice has had orders of protection filed against him, with one of those originating in Adair County in 2007 and another filed in Putnam County on June 12.

Koenig is being lodged in the Clark County Jail on a $100,000 cash-only bond. He was arraigned Thursday morning.